Earbuds

All earbuds are, at least in my experience, a trade-off of one kind or another, especially true wireless earbuds with words like “sport” or “active” in their name. Ergonomics, battery life, and sound quality all fight for representation in a vanishingly small form factor, at best striking an acceptable balance of mediocrity between all three. Frustrated with many of the other buds I’d tried out, I had hoped the Jaybird RUN XTs would be the pair to solve this conundrum. Read More >>

I walked into this review hoping to be disappointed. Ever since I first reviewed them four years ago, the over-ear Sennheiser Momentum Wireless has been the model to beat in terms of supreme sound quality in the world of Bluetooth headphones. So when the company announced that it would be releasing truly wireless earbuds with the Momentum name, I almost wanted them to suck. It wouldn’t be fair for Sennheiser to dominate the earbud business too! But alas, the Momentum True Wireless earbuds are awesome. Read More >>

I’m a simple woman. When I’m riding the bus, walking down the street, or working in the office, I just want to pop in my earbuds, turn on some good music (buy Honey on iTunes) and ignore everything around me. Read More >>

When Apple failed to provide any updates on AirPods during its most recent launch event, it seemed like fans of the ubiquitous wireless earbuds would be forced to wait until 2019 for a new model. However, based on newly granted Bluetooth SIG certifications discovered by MySmartPrice.com, it seems there’s still a chance that new AirPods could hit the market before the end of the year. Read More >>

There were plenty of rumours regarding Google's slate of announcements last night, among them one claiming Google would be launching a refreshed pair of Pixel Buds. That would have been a welcome update, because Pixel Buds were pretty terrible, but unfortunately nothing was mentioned. As it turns out, Google's new USB-C earbuds are essentially wired versions of the Pixel Buds - with many of the same features and questionable design choices. Read More >>

Sound quality on truly wireless earbuds can seem like a bit of an afterthought. After all, most people just want these things not to fall out of their ears. But Master & Dynamic’s new MW07 truly wireless earbuds do a few new interesting things. Not only do they feel good and look great. They sound like an expensive dream. Read More >>

A weird thing about reviewing gadgets for a living is that my neighbours notice. Sometimes they just call me out for getting a lot of packages in the post. Other times, they ask me for advice. One neighbour recently pointed out the £170 Jabra 65t Elite Active truly wireless buds I was wearing in the lift. “What do you think?” he asked. After taking the earbud out of my head and asking him to repeat the question, I was honest and probably a little bit surprised by my candour. I said, “I love them. You should buy them.” Read More >>

There are two ways of listening to music: you can shut everything out and focus purely on the tunes, or you can use music to enhance other activities in your life. Headphones and earbuds, especially those of the noise-cancelling variety, are quite good at first; you just put some on, turn up the volume, and let everything else fade away. However, when it comes to the second kind of enjoyment of tunes, earbuds aren’t quite as proficient. Now sometimes that’s a good thing, because I doubt many people like hearing others grunt at the gym or taking a jackhammer to the street. But at the same time, wearing earbuds often means you lose the ability to hear the bell of a bike coming up from behind you, or the chirping of birds on a beautiful day in the park. Read More >>

If you’d told me in 2007 that people would be walking around listening to music with wireless, popcorn-sized earbuds, I would have called you crazy. It is now 2017, and these futuristic little gadgets are a reality. But which ones are the best? Read More >>

After the initial outrage of Apple removing the headphone jack from the iPhone 7 died down, users not wanting to go wireless soon realised that using the phone’s Lightning port meant they could no longer charge while listening to music. Pioneer’s new Rayz Plus earbuds include a simple solution to that problem, but they’re still far from perfect. Read More >>

When they were first announced in September, it was obvious that AirPods were Apple’s attempt to distract everyone from the iPhone’s lack of a headphone jack. At $160, AirPods are Apple’s version of truly wireless earphones, a gadget lots of companies have been trying to perfect with varying degrees of success. No one disagrees that wireless is the future, the big question is what company will finally manage to make a truly wireless earbud that is comfortable, affordable, and worth using over more traditional wireless headphones. After two months of delays, AirPods are finally shipping—but don’t run out and buy them. While they’re the best buds of their kind in the world, they’re too inconvenient to really be worth it. Read More >>

The audiophile community is an insular place where science and hard facts can often take a backseat to PR speak that’s treated like religion. Yet some headphones and earbuds rise above the noise and the companies that produce them gain titanous reputations. Noble, a small company operating in the US, with production in Japan, has a reputation for crafting some of the best — and prettiest — headphones you can spend a paycheque on. Recently Noble’s redesigned its universal in-ear monitors (high-end earbuds) and now the mid-range Noble Savant IEMs are some of the best fitting buds you can shove in your ear. Read More >>

Doppler Labs, the company that wants to stick a Jarvis-like computer in every ear, will go live with it first bionic buds that anyone can buy later this year. This is some futuristic shit. Read More >>